AN ADDED TERROR 147

from destruction, it is very doubtful whether such
an organisation could, at least during the first half-
century or so of its existence, be called upon to tackle
so difficult a question as that of the creation of an
international currency based on international credit.
In the first place, what will be required more than
anything else after the war in economic matters
will be the elimination of all possible reasons for
uncertainty; so much uncertainty and difficulty
will be inevitable that it seems to me to be almost
criminal to add to those uncertainties by an out-
burst of eloquence on the part of currency reformers
if there were any danger of their recommendations
being accepted. It will be difficult enough to know
where the producers of the world are to get raw
material, find efficient labour, and then find a market
for their products, without at the same time up-
setting their mincls with doubts concerning some
kind of new-fangled currency that is to be created,
and in which they are to be made to accept payment,
with the possibilities of changes in the system which
may have to be effected owing to some quite unfore-
seen results happening from its adoption. The gold
standard, with all its failures, we do know; we also
know that something may be done some day to
remedy them if mankind can produce a set of rulers
capable of approaching the question with all the
knowledge and experience required; but to sub-
stitute this system at a time of great uncertainty for
one which might or might not work would seem to
be tempting Providence in an entirely unnecessary
manner at a time when it is above all necessary